Sara Denton was born November 12, 1924 in Paducah, Kentucky into a family of readers and thinkers. When the opportunity arose, at 18 years of age, to move to Washington, D.C. to work in the Signal Corps, she seized the opportunity. From the vantage point of her apartment, she could see the Secret Service assisting Franklin D. Roosevelt into his limousine at the back door of the White House. His polio was hidden from the public but this diversion allowed Sara and her friends to greet and be greeted by their hero.

Robert Gore first came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1973 as a public affairs officer with the Air Force. He returned to West Virginia to go into the family business in 1976 and four years later was offered a job with Summa Corporation. Back in Las Vegas, he also served as director of the Air Force Association. At a dinner meeting of the Association, Retired General Bill Becker suggested that an engineering school was needed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Mindy Unger-Wadkins was born August 10, 1965 in Los Angeles, California, and her family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada two years later when her father, Joseph Unger, was relocated by his employer. At the age of twelve, after both her parents had passed away, she moved in with her brother Bob Unger and his wife, Aydie. While studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Unger-Wadkins took a clerk job based at Yucca Mountain, and was eventually hired as a full-time public relations officer.

Lawrence Canarelli was born in Roseburg, Oregon shortly after World War II. His family had no money and lived in a tent on the Umpqua River, foraging and living day-to-day. After their tent and everything they owned burned down, Canarelli’s family moved to various logging camps through Oregon and California. His father quit his job and unexpectedly left the family, leaving the 21-year old mother no choice but to put Canarelli and his three siblings in a Pentecostal orphanage.

Bruce Isaacson was born in 1956 in Castro Valley, California and spent his childhood in Oakland, California. Isaacson became the first poet laureate of Clark County (Nevada) in June 2015. He was born in Castro Valley, California to Betty Griffin and Bernard Isaacson, and spent his childhood in Oakland. He received his bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College with majors in economics as well as drama, and continued studying for his Masters of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.